ostiaries

Maybe it's time to restore the proper function of the ostiaries and the true meaning of Mass of the Faithful?

Outrage in Malaysia 2009

So arrayed I stepped at last from my door and was saluted as before by my monstrous ostiaries.

The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987

Rome, in the late Roman era and the one following, the ostiaries were still actually employed as guardians of the church buildings and of their contents.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

According to these the ostiaries are first instructed in their duties by the archdeacon; after this he brings them before the bishop who takes the keys of the church from the altar and hands them to the candidate for ordination with the words: "Fulfil thine office to show that thou knowest that thou wilt give account to God concerning the things that are locked away under these keys."

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

In the ordination of ostiaries at the present day their duties are thus enumerated in the Pontifical:

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

When, from the end of the second century the Christian communities began to own houses for holding church services and for purposes of administration, church ostiaries are soon mentioned, at least for the larger cities.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

This century also produced a train of other officers (beside bishops and deacons), such as subdeacons, who were all to the deacon what the presbyter was to the bishop; acolytes, persons to attend at service time on the ministers; ostiaries, doorkeepers; readers, men who were appointed to read the Scriptures in public; exorcists, officers of weak and superstitious appointment, whose business was to pretend to expel the devil from the candidate for baptism.

The Gospel Day Or, the Light of Christianity Charles Ebert Orr 1897

Reformation there were sub-deacons who wore alb and maniple, acolytes, the tokens of whose office were a taper staff and small pitcher, ostiaries or doorkeepers corresponding to our verger or clerk, readers, exorcists, _rectores chori_, etc.

The Parish Clerk 1892

For we are carried into the dark lake, like the Ægyptian river into the sea, by seven principal ostiaries: the mother-sins [141] of that number are the deadly engins of evil spirits that undo us, and even evil spirits themselves; and he who is under the chains thereof is not without a possession.

Christian Morals 1605-1682 1863

For the Gallican Rite, short statements concerning the ordination of the lower orders, among them that of the ostiaries, are found in the "Statuta ecclesiæ antiqua" a collection of canons which appeared at Arles about the beginning of the sixth century (Maassen,

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913